Re Vera

We were walking down the short wooden boardwalk, towards the beach. Nathan in his his swim trunks, his white sun visor on his head. He looked back at me and smiled. I smiled back.
The hot sun was beating down on us, making the beach feel like a desert.
The white sand was hot from sitting under the rays of the sun, and every here and there, climbing the wooden beams of the boardwalk, you could see some sort of light green vegetation. To the right, the water of the ocean was crystal clear azure blue, as gorgeous as the sky.
The clouds had a mirror image in the sea, and you could hear the gulls cry as they flew through the salty ocean air.
That smell was one I enjoyed so much, it reminded me of home, of safety, of all the fun and memorable times Nathan and I had shared.
We soon reached our favorite spot on the beach.
We came here every time we wanted to have fun in the sun, nobody else knew about it, not even the castle servants.
Nathan and I had set up a volleyball net, lawn chairs, and umbrellas here.
We had named this little beach Pelicans Cove.
I was thinking back to when we were eight, when we had discovered this place.
We were a very mischievous little duo, and we liked to cause chaos wherever we were.
(Still do)
Whether it was a party for the royals or just lunch time, if havoc could be wreaked you could guess who would be there and causing it!
I sat down in my Bright blue lounge chair under my gigantic, dark blue umbrella and sat the beach ball and goggles in the sand. I pulled off my cover up (A.K.A. Nathans shirt) and threw it on top of the basket.
I then handed Nathan his towel and we, oh so ceremoniously, as we do these things, unfurled our towels, whipped them once in the air, then laid them over our chairs.
I went to sit down but Nathan pushed me right back up.
"Denied! Besides, I thought we were gonna make a sandcastle?" Nathan said smugly.
"Oh, okay, let me get some water in one of the buckets." I said.
I wanted to sit down and relax after the hike up here, but I could see he wasn't about to let that happen.
I got up grabbed the bucket, and devised a plan to spill the cool clear water on Nathan and make it look like an accident.
I bent down and got the small bucket full of water, then walked back to where Nathan was sitting in the sand, digging with his shovel.
"Here's the water, I thou...Ahh!" I pretended to trip, dumping the water on Nathans head, and watching as it spilled down his back, totally soaking him.
When he turned around, the look on his face was priceless! I burst out laughing, falling over myself and rolling in the sand. That was a dead give away that it had been no accident.
Nathan chuckled.
"So you think that's funny, do you?" He started walking towards me, and I tried getting up but with all my laughing I just couldn't find my footing.
Bending over me, Nathan started to tickle me. I squirmed around trying to get away from his tickle attack, but to no avail.
Suddenly he scooped me up and slung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and started walking towards the water.
"You think that's so funny, lets see how you like it!" That was when I understood his intentions.
"Eek, No, No, No, No, No, No! Wait, Nathan, don't!" I started squirming again and yelling for help, even beating my fists against his back.
But that was just a lost cause.
He tossed me a like a rag-doll, a good five or six feet away from him, into the salty blue water of the ocean.
When I resurfaced I was coughing, and hacking because of the salty taste of the water.
It had taken me a while to figure out which way was up and which way was down.
I was under water a good two minutes. It felt like a lot longer though.
He swam over to me frantically, probably thinking I had inhaled the water with all the coughing I was doing.
"Ah, crap! Adelle, are you okay, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..." By the time I stopped coughing he had reached me.
"You okay 'lele?" He asked.
I scowled. "No, I'm not. You just threw me into the ocean!" I said, my tone increasing in volume.
"I'm sorry Adelle. Will you forgive me?" I could tell he meant it, not just by the sincerity of his tone, but also by the way he looked at me.
"Fine, I forgive you." I said. He pulled me into a hug, and I hugged him back.
"Ew, get off of me! You have cooties!" I said playfully as I tried, in vain, to push him off of me.
We both started laughing.
After swimming back to shore, Nathan and I decided to play volleyball with our beach ball.
I served it and he hit it back to me, then I spiked it over the net. He dove for it, hit it over the net back to me and I hit it again.
This continued till he got a point. We decided to stop the game because it had been an hour, and I was dead beat tired.
We sat next to each other on my lounge chair and listened to some music, one ear bud in my right ear, the other in his left ear, and I leaned my head on his shoulder as I hummed to the words.
I could feel myself starting to drift off to sleep.
The next thing I knew I was being shaken awake by Nathan.
"Adelle, wake up sleepy head." Nathan whispered in my ear.
I started to wake up, but apparently it wasn't enough for Nathan, because only moments after telling me to get up, he pushed me of the chair and into the sand.
So much for him being a gentleman! I looked up at him from my sprawled out state in the sand.
"What the hell Nathan?!" I screeched at him.
"Well I was gonna ask if you were hungry, but whatever, if your gonna act like that I'll just eat it all by myself." He said.
"Well, fine! I'm not even hungry!" I said, sticking my tongue out at him.
The truth was, I really was hungry, starving actually.
And then my traitor of a stomach just had to go and rumble. Nathan chuckled and opened his mouth to say something.
I clamped my hand over his mouth.
"Shut up, both of you!" I said in a particularly dark tone, glaring first at Nathan then at my stomach, which was still making monster growling noises.
He removed my hand, smiling.
I just rolled my eyes at him as I walked over to where he had set the blanket and basket O'Brady had given us.
I set the blanket out and sat on it, opening the basket as Nathan sat down.
I started pulling things out.
First to go were the plates. I handed them to Nathan so he could set them out.
There were six sweet dinner rolls, lasagna, and chocolate dipped strawberries.
Oh, how I love O'Brady!
I pulled out two wine glasses and handed one to Nathan, then pulled out a flask and a bottle of cream soda.
(Did you actually think I'd be drinking wine?)
Nathan poured the murky, red liquid of the flask into his glass as I did the same with my cream soda.
After eating the last of the strawberries, I decided it was time to build a sandcastle.
I grabbed Nathans hand and pulled him onto his feet.
"Adelle, what are you doing?" He asked, a perplexed look on his face.
"Weren't we gonna build a sand castle?" I asked. As he remembered I could literally see his eyes light up.
God, he was cute!
Shut up brain!
After scolding my stupid self, I sat down and began to dig with my little green shovel.
Three and a half hours later, Nathan and I had finished our ginormous sandcastle.
The thing was a monster! It was about a foot taller than me, and I'm five foot seven!
After that, Nathan decided he wanted to sit out in the sun.
"Okay, well I'm gonna go swim, so if I don't come back up after three minutes, I'm drowning and I'll need you to come and save me." I said, grabbing my goggles and putting them on.
He just rolled his eyes, waved me off as he muttered something about coming to my rescue and pulled out my CD player, putting the headphones in his ears.
I waded into the deep water and started to swim, diving under soon after.
The island was just a short ways off from a coral reef, and it was probably the most beautiful thing about this island.
The colors were so bright and the shapes were so strange.
There was so much life here: sea horses swam, crabs danced , and fish of all shapes sizes and colors roamed every inch of the reef.
After a little while, I came up for a breath, and just floated on the water.
Looking up at the sky, I realized the sun wasn't as high as high as it had been when we got here.
I decided to swim back to shore and see what Nathan was up to.
When I walked up to him, he looked like he was sleeping, with my headphones still in.
I could even hear him snoring.
Creeping up to him slowly, I pulled out one of the ear buds, put my face right by his ear, then screamed as loud as I could.
He jumped about five feet in the air, and I burst out laughing, rolling in the sand, yet again.
He started yelling about how immature I was and that I needed to grow up, but I barely heard it over my loud laughing.
For five minutes, all he did was glare at me while I tried to stop my laughing fit long enough to act my age.
"I'm sorry Nathan." I said, with a sheepish grin. "But really, you should have seen your face you were like.. hahahaha!"
I burst out laughing when I tried to imitate his shocked and annoyed facial expression.
He just smiled, shaking his head at me.
We sat there a while longer, watching the sunset.
The island sunset was always colorful, it made me think of the coral reef with its bright colors and strange patterns.
I could watch the sunset for hours if it lasted that long.
Which, of course, it doesn't. Instead, it lasts for a few minutes then everything goes pitch black, that is, till the moon comes out of hiding behind the clouds. I watched the stars as they twinkled, listening to the crickets chirp.
Everything was peaceful, well till Nathan decided to go and ruin it.
I screamed as he poured cold salt water on me.
"NATHAN! What the hell Nathan!" I yelled at him as he laughed.
His laughter was cut short when I threw the beach ball at his head, hard.
"Just getting you back for earlier Adelle, no need to throw a beach ball at me. Lets pack up and head back to the castle, O'Brady's probably worried something happened." He said, pouting that I had thrown the beach ball at him.
"Agreed." I said, still a bit upset he dumped a bucket of cold water on me.
As we arrived back at the castle, I could see a figure sitting on the steps of the castle.
I already knew who it was: O'Brady, clearly worried that something had happened.
"My goodness Yer late! I expected ye back hours ago yer highness." O'Brady said while wringing his hands.
"What were ye doing?" you could clearly hear the anxiety in his voice.
"Sorry O'Brady, we just lost track of time. Didn't mean to worry you." Nathan said.
"Ah, well, time fer ye two to be headed of to bed, eh? Goodnight!" He said, getting up and bowing his head to Nathan and I.
We handed our things to Abigail, one of the maids, and went up stairs to our room.
"Is it okay if I take a bath?" I asked Nathan as we reached our room.
He nodded to me then walked into the closet.
As I settled into the now full tub, the warm water started to relax my tired muscles. I thought of my favorite lullaby.
I leaned my head onto the rim of the tub and hummed the melody.
I was starting to drift off to sleep again.